Despite worries, 83% of Indian workers willing to let AI help at job

74% of Indian workers say they’re worried AI will replace their jobs, but even more — 83% — would delegate as much work as possible to AI in order to lessen their workload, finds a new report.
Microsoft today released the India findings of its flagship Work Trend Index 2023 Report, “Will AI Fix Work?”, and it shows that over three in four Indian workers would be comfortable using AI not just for administrative tasks (86%) but also for analytical work (88%), and even creative aspects of their role (87%). 100% of Indian creative workers who are extremely familiar with AI would be comfortable using AI for creative aspects of their job. Meanwhile, Indian managers are 1.6x more likely to say that AI would provide value in the workplace by boosting productivity rather than cutting headcount.

The 2023 Work Trend Index surveyed 31,000 people across industries in 31 countries including 14 Asia Pacific markets as well as trillions of signals from emails, meetings, and chats across Microsoft 365, plus labour trends on LinkedIn.

The data shows that the pace of work has accelerated faster than humans can keep up, and it’s impacting innovation. AI is poised to create a whole new way of working and organisations that move first to embrace AI will break the cycle — increasing creativity and productivity for everyone.

“As the nature of work evolves, AI promises to be the biggest transformation to work in our lifetimes. The next generation of AI will unlock a new wave of productivity growth, removing the drudgery from our jobs and freeing us to rediscover the joy of creation. The opportunity and responsibility for every organisation and leader is to get AI right — testing and experimenting with new ways of working to build a brighter future of work for everyone," said Bhaskar Basu, country head – modern work, Microsoft India.

This will require not just investing in AI, but also ensuring that every employee has the necessary AI aptitude to thrive in the new world of work, Basu added.

The report also shows that 76% of Indian workers say they don’t have enough time and energy to get their work done, and those people are 3.1x more likely to say they struggled with being innovative. Further, more than three in four Indian leaders (84%) say they’re concerned about lack of innovation. The primary culprit disrupting productivity is inefficient meetings, as reported by 46% of Indian workers who feel that their absence in half or more of their meetings would go unnoticed by colleagues.

Nine in 10 Indian leaders say employees they hire will need new skills to be prepared for the growth of AI. 78% of Indian workers say they don’t currently have the right capabilities to get their work done.